


roll the dice

by floweringbloom



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-26
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-03-19 19:48:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18977188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floweringbloom/pseuds/floweringbloom
Summary: Ichigo isn't precisely the last person Kisuke expects to see here, but he's close.





	roll the dice

**Author's Note:**

> *sneaks in a ficlet for this event just under the wire*
> 
> I really need to pay more attention to these things! Anyway, have a teeny self-indulgent pick-and-choose-canon time travel snip, just because.

Ichigo isn't precisely the last person Kisuke expects to see here, but he's close.

It feels like he's seeing a ghost. Just spotting that shock of bright hair sends a thrum of adrenaline through Kisuke's veins, a sudden, startling reminder of everything he left behind. Ichigo's reiatsu is suppressed to usual Shinigami levels but instantly recognisable and he's dressed like he belongs here. His zanpakutou is strapped to his back and the haori he's wearing is captain's white, the zero on the back raising just as many questions as it answers, and Kisuke wonders if he should be annoyed that this is what Ichigo calls letting him go.

He can't be, though. Not when Ichigo looks past a reluctantly respectful Sixth Seat and meets his eyes, not when Ichigo looks at him like he's all the stars in the sky. Kisuke doesn't deserve that look, nor Ichigo's smile, but he could spend a few centuries trying.

"Kurosaki-san," Kisuke says, tilting his head so the hat he acquired a week ago hides his eyes, "this is a surprise."

Ichigo's scowl deepens and Kisuke has to hide the amusement in his smile. "Yeah, no thanks to you," Ichigo grumbles, and steps past the Shinigami who's escorting him. "Hey, you can show me 'round, right, Geta-boshi?"

"Urahara-taicho?" his escort asks, and Kisuke dips his head.

"Of course, Kurosaki-san. It would be my pleasure."

Ichigo falls into step beside him like he belongs there, and Kisuke slants him another sidelong glance as he takes them the long way around Seireitei in a supposed tour. Ichigo looks less tired than Kisuke expects, grumpy but not overwhelmingly so, and the three weeks that Kisuke has lived here without him have felt slower than the entire year before. Kisuke keeps up a steady, largely pointless chatter that Ichigo interjects into on occasion for show, and yet there's still something utterly reassuring in the way Ichigo's mouth pulls in amused irritation, in the fondness that suffuses his voice when he sighs.

Kisuke's office at the Twelfth has all the hallmarks of his recent promotion, and when he shuts the door and enacts his privacy seals Ichigo sprawls on the couch he's only recently acquired and narrows his eyes. "What'd I say about thinking things through?"

"I thought this through," Kisuke objects, mildly. "More than you appear to have done, Ichigo. The Zero Division?"

"I had to do something," Ichigo says. "You were being stupid. You didn't have to do this alone."

"Apparently I won't be," Kisuke says.

"Stupid," Ichigo repeats, frowning. "What did you think I'd do?"

 _Not this,_ Kisuke doesn't say, and he's not even sure if it's true. "I suppose I should have expected it," he says, finally. "…You agreed to let me go."

Ichigo looks at him like he knows exactly what Kisuke is thinking, a sharp intelligence in his gaze that makes him feel unusually transparent. "Yeah, when the world was ending," he says flatly. "You aren't normally one to try the sacrifice play."

"This was the smartest choice," Kisuke says. "And considering I destroyed Hueco Mundo in the process - "

"What was left of it," Ichigo says. "And obviously it wasn't, since I managed. Kisuke…"

Kisuke itches for a fan to hide his face, but he still plasters on a smile. "Really, Ichigo, you know you always defy expectations. Evidently my research on alternate dimensions was also intrinsically flawed, if you managed to transport yourself to this one specifically - "

"Kisuke," Ichigo says steadily, and Kisuke looks up as he rises to his feet, doesn't move as Ichigo slots himself neatly on his desk. He sits on a handful of papers Kisuke hasn't yet gotten to beside a pile he's already done, and Kisuke wants so terribly to keep him there, close enough he could set his hands across Ichigo's thighs, close enough he could lean in and take all of Ichigo's sincere affection and more. "You know I came here for you."

Kisuke does know. "This is inappropriate."

"What's inappropriate is you transporting yourself to another universe right after kissing me," Ichigo says bluntly.

Kisuke widens his eyes. "Holding my last actions against me - ?"

"If you're going to _run away_ after, yes," Ichigo says, "Kisuke, you know I," and Kisuke sees the moment his judgement shifts, the way his eyebrows furrow and his mouth pulls down - and then Ichigo has his hands fisted in the front of Kisuke's shihakusho, his mouth hard and demanding against Kisuke's own.

And Kisuke is too greedy to deny him this, the hot press of his mouth a pleasure too incomparable to bother himself with guilt; Ichigo kisses him like it's all he can think about and Kisuke drinks him in like a desert does a flood. "Ichigo," Kisuke murmurs, voice trapped against the hollow of Ichigo's throat, and Ichigo makes a wordless noise and kisses him again, until his mouth is red and his pupils dark with want.

He looks like a dream. Kisuke kisses him again, just to confirm.

"Stop thinking so hard," Ichigo says, "I chose this."

"Mm," Kisuke says, "but you haven't answered even half of my questions, Ichigo-kun." A thought strikes him, an idea that he discarded early on - "Are you the Soul King now?"

"Doesn't matter," Ichigo grumbles, not reassuring at all. Kisuke pulls back, raises his eyebrows, and enjoys the way Ichigo's gaze lingers on his mouth, the way his breath catches when Kisuke squeezes his thigh to prompt a response. "Look, I was for a bit but not really anymore - you have a room here, right? I'm not letting you go."

"You said you would," Kisuke reminds him, and Ichigo's mouth tugs wryly.

"C'mon, Kisuke, you didn't explain anything. If I knew what you were planning - " He cuts himself off, sending Kisuke a narrow-eyed look. When he slips off Kisuke's desk it's with the confidence of knowledge, the assuredness of Kisuke's desire, and he tilts his head invitingly, eyelashes lowered. "Are you coming or not?"

The world they left had been collapsing at the seams by the time Kisuke had finished his invention; there was enough power for one Shinigami out of the half-dozen left, and he knew he'd been the practical choice. No one soul could have held it together, not even a real person instead of a Quincy corpse on the throne - but somehow Ichigo had, when Kisuke had thought the man he knew to be forever lost.

Time travel is a loser's game, but Ichigo's never let that stop him before. 

"If you insist," Kisuke says as airily as he can, and catches Ichigo's elbow to kiss him once more. Ichigo smiles into it, already starting to impatiently tug him along. 

It's Ichigo's game, now. Kisuke's looking forward to it.


End file.
